Car or other seats



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY B. COBB, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.

CAR OR OTHER SEATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 277,115, dated May 8,1883. Application filed January 15, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY B. 00121;, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Wilmington, Delaware, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Car and other Seats, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part hereof.

The object of my invention is to provide a car-seat, sofa, or bed-bottom with a cheap and durable substitute for costly broad strips, generally composed of aseries of cross-slats of wood to which a spring or elasticity is imparted by the union therewith of asteel band,the' strips being mounted crosswise of the steel band upon a webbing. The steel band spoken of is of the ordinary width of hoop-iron, and the wooden slats forming, with the webbing, the straps. Said slats, being crosswise of the steel band, are about four or five inches long, thus making the strip which covers each series of springs about four or five inches wide. My invention is designed to support these broad strips, and has no relation to the spring-band which imparts elasticity to them, as my device is in itself elastic. The broad strips referred to stretch over each series of spiral or other springs used to obtain the requisite degree of elasticity.

It has been customary of late years,in order to prevent the spiral and other springs from showin g through the upholsterin g, and from piercing and cutting whatever cushion is used above the springs, to place over each series of sprin gs a broad band of some flexible substance possessing suflicient elasticity to yield at the point where pressure is required. This strip is always made sufficiently wide to present a broad bearin g-surface to the upholstery or cushion, so that the edges of the strip will not out. The slats have been costly, and if sufficiently elastic generally had to be supplemented by a steel band.

placed immediately over the springs and beneath the elastic strip. The object of this steel band was to impart acertain amount of elasticity or spring to the protecting strip or shield. If a single strip of wood was used for this purpose, the metal spring-strip could be dispensed with; but the wood would have to be made so heavy, to avoid breakage, that it would notpossess the requisite elasticity or yield at thepoint of contact of the body imposing the pressure.

If pressed upon at one end, the wooden slat would have a tendency to rise at the other.

I propose to remove all the above dificulties and to cheapen the cost of the above articles to the public by making the protective slat which passes over the springs of a flexible and elastic preparation or composition the base of whichis paper, and known in the trade as vulcanized fiber and lcatheroidi These two substances are made of paper treated by various processes. That known as vulcanized fiber is manufactured and sold by the Vulcancanized Fiber Company, of Wilmington, Delaware, and the product known as leatheroid is manufactured and sold by the Leatheroid Manufacturing Company, of Boston,-Massachusetts. These substances are made of paper, which is so treated that the product as sold in the market possesses the attributes of hardness, flexibility, and an elasticity somewhat resembling that of a sheet of steel. The vulcanized fiber is said to be treated with sulphate of zinc, and leatheroid with sulphuric acid. They are not what is commonly known as pasteboard, but I shall call them such. These products certainly resemble pasteboard, as an article of pasteboardhardened by means of the applicacation of sulphuric acid or sulphate of zinc and glue in the course of its manufacture, and then subjected to great pressure when dry, will answer for the purpose of my paper spring-strip. To attain the necessary spring to the pasteboard, it is necessary simply to unite with its various layers in the course of manufacture a stiffening and hardening substance,aud to sub ject it to hydraulic pressure when the proper thickness of board has been obtained.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a car-seat furnished with a set of my pasteboard strips; Fig.2, a view of the bottom of the seat; Fig. 3, a cross-section of the same on line X X of Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a detached broken section of a part of my car-seat, show-- ing the method of fastening the strip to the frame; Figs. 5 and 6, detached perspective views of the beveled metal strap for fastening the strip to the frame; Fig. 7, a modification of the device for securing the strip to the frame, being a longitudinal sectional view of the end of the strip, crossing a transverse slot near the end of the same through which slot 

